Misplacing a mobile device such as a wireless smart phone or tablet may be a common occurrence, particularly given the increased popularity of these devices in modern society. In order to locate a misplaced mobile device, conventional solutions may involve the use of another device such as a separate phone or computer to call and/or text the misplaced mobile device, a radio frequency identifier (RFID) based device to detect an RFID tag installed on the misplaced mobile device, and so forth. The use of another device may be inconvenient and/or impractical, depending upon the circumstances. Other solutions may involve installing a location based application on the mobile device in advance of the device being misplaced. Such an approach may require the misplaced mobile device to be in an active mode in order for the application to function. In most cases, however, the mobile device enters a standby state once it has been misplaced for a certain amount of time, rendering the location based application inoperable.